


(hapless) romantic

by greenconverses



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Humor, pre-httyd 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-05
Updated: 2014-08-05
Packaged: 2018-02-11 22:22:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2085375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greenconverses/pseuds/greenconverses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vikings are not the sort of people who appreciate being snuck up on and Astrid Hofferson appreciates it even less so. That boyfriend of hers should really know better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	(hapless) romantic

**(hapless) romantic**

Vikings were not the sort of people who appreciated being snuck up on.

Astrid Hofferson appreciated it even less than the average Viking, and whoever had the bright idea to yank her into a dark alcove as she left the Dragon Academy for the night had apparently forgotten this fact.

Astrid stumbled over her feet, momentarily caught off balance, but regained her bearings quick enough, her temper already starting to smolder. The semi-finals for the dragon racing championship was tomorrow and if the twins thought playing dirty would get her out of the race this year, they had another thing coming.

However, the vicious choke-hold and imminent pummeling she expected didn’t come. Instead, her attacker wound his arms around her waist and pulled her flush against him in an intimate embrace, abruptly making it clear that this wasn’t about sabotage at all. He tilted his head toward hers, clearly angling for a kiss, and her irritation immediately grew into a white hot fury.

 _Ugh_. Hadn’t that muttonhead Snotlout learned his lesson the last time he tried to corner her for a so-called romantic interlude? That idiot  _never_  knew when to stop. Well, if he wanted another black eye, she certainly wouldn’t deny him the pleasure.

Astrid was in motion before his lips could do anything more than brush against hers. She stomped on his foot with her heavy boots and buried her elbow in his stomach after he let go of her, wrenching a satisfyingly familiar groan of pain out of him. She smashed in his nose for good measure with her palm, and then took a step back, shaking out her fist, inordinately pleased with herself.

But as her eyes adjusted to the dimness, she noticed that the shadowy figure in front of her didn’t have Snotlout’s distinctive, muscled bulk and horned helmet perched on his head. He was much leaner and — well, he would be taller, if he wasn’t currently hunched over and hobbling on one leg in pain. Either way, he certainly wasn’t Snotlout and in fact, he looked an  _awful_  lot like…

“ _Hiccup_?” she asked, flabbergasted. “How — what — ?”

Hiccup was the last person she would’ve expected to pull a stunt like this. His sense of self-preservation was much too high, for one, and he was usually smart enough to avoid taking a page out of Snotlout’s book for, well,  _anything_ , let alone romantic advice. Plus, he’d been away with Toothless for most of the week, scouting the edges of the Archipelago for new islands to put on his map, and hadn’t been expected back until after the races tomorrow, much to Stoic’s everlasting chagrin. 

Oh, he must’ve just gotten back. She hadn’t seen him in days, and what was the first thing she did? Punch him in the nose. Fantastic. Thank the gods the twins and Snotlout weren’t around to see  _this_. She’d never hear the end of it. 

“Hey Astrid,” Hiccup wheezed, balancing precariously on his peg leg. “Nice to… see you, too. Think you can stomp on the foot I’ve already lost next… oh, whoa!”

His metal foot slipped on the uneven rock and he tumbled toward her, arms flailing. Astrid reached out to steady him, but the combination of his weight and forward momentum caused her to stumble back into the wall. It wasn’t a soft landing by any means. Both of them cursed as they hit the rock, Hiccup’s shoulder knocking into Astrid’s chin and her elbow digging in the soft spot of his ribs again.

Hiccup planted a hand above her head, just in time for his face to avoid making an intimate connection with a jagged edge of rock, and he dug his foot into the ground, managing to keep the both of them upright and steady. Astrid’s arms were full of her hapless boyfriend, their legs hopelessly tangled together, and Hiccup tried to steady himself by putting his free hand in the  _worst_ possible spot on her body and oh, she didn’t  _at all_  feel sorry for punching him now.

“Ack, sorry, Astrid — I didn’t mean — oh gods, hang on — ”

“ _Hiccup_ ,” Astrid growled, blushing madly. She braced her hands on his chest and pushed him away from her. “What in Thor’s name were you  _thinking_?”

Hiccup glanced down at her, shrugging hesitantly and offering her an awkward, wince of a grin.

“Uh, that… that did not go at all like I planned?” he said. She glowered at him, and his wince grew. “Sorry? Again?”

Astrid socked him on the inner arm, earning an indignant yelp from him. “And what do you  _think_  was going to happen when you snuck up on me like that, Hiccup?”

Hiccup spluttered in protest. “Snuck? I wasn’t  _sneaking_ – ”

“Oh, yes you were!” she said, poking him in the chest. “You’ve been away for a  _week_ , and you decide the best way to say  _hi_  is to jump out of the dark at me like some sort of creep? In what world does a plan like that leave you with all your limbs intact, huh?”

Hiccup huffed in frustration, blowing his bangs out of his eyes, and studied at her for a long moment. Astrid could feel her own frustration threatening to give way under his green gaze, but she held her chin high and refused to back down. A few more charged seconds passed and then, finally, Hiccup sighed and shoulders dipped down in defeat.

“I wasn’t trying to be a creep,” he grumbled, glaring at his feet. He gestured aimlessly at her with his free hand. “I was going for  _romantic_. You know, the whole heroic wanderer returns after a long journey and sweeps his girlfriend off her feet with a surprise kiss sort of greeting… thing.”

“Oh,” Astrid replied, blinking. Although they hadn’t kept their growing feelings a secret from each other in the last few years, her friendship with Hiccup had only become a true romance in recent weeks. Even with how familiar with each other, there were new, untested intricacies and a depth to their relationship that managed to surprise her. “I see.”

“I spent a lot of time thinking about you while I was gone, so… I wanted coming home to be special,” Hiccup continued, scrubbing his hand through his hair and smiling at her in that charming, self-deprecating way of his. “Kinda dumb, huh?”

It was so hard to stay irritated with him when he pulled  _that smile_  out of the bag, damn him.

“It wasn’t  _that_  dumb,” she admitted begrudgingly, smoothing her hands against the leather of his battle armor. “Your idea, anyway. It’s actually kind of sweet. The execution could some work, though. _A lot_  of work.”

Hiccup chuckled, inching himself closer to her. “Yeah, I don’t think the real heroes end up with a broken nose when they go in for a kiss.”

He rubbed his nose, glancing at her significantly, and she rolled her eyes, reaching up to swat his hands away and do her own examination.

“I didn’t break it, dummy,” she sighed, gently running her thumb across the bridge of his nose. “But _maybe_  if this hero had some sense of timing, he could’ve avoided getting his nose bashed in by his girlfriend. He wasn’t the only one who spent the week missing someone, you know.”

Satisfied to find Hiccup’s nose perfectly in line, Astrid let her fingers linger against his cheeks, brushing over his cheekbones and down the line of jaw, where a surprising amount of scruff greeted her touch. Hiccup’s breath caught and she glanced up at the sound, their eyes meeting in the dim light.

It was as if they both remembered at the same moment that the two of them were alone, in a dark, secluded spot, and that Hiccup had admitted to spending most of his day thinking about kissing her. There were no dragons to stick their curious  heads in where they didn’t belong, no overbearing father figures to interrupt with unwelcome advice, and certainly no idiot friends spying and giggling from afar. It was just them. 

Just them.

Astrid was suddenly incredibly aware of every inch of Hiccup pressed into her, of the heat of his body, and the scent of deep sky and ocean that was unbearably him surrounding her. The air in her lungs felt abruptly heavy as the look in Hiccup’s changed from humorous to steady determination and she swallowed, hazarding a glance at his full lips. He shifted against her, his strong thigh sliding up and between her legs, and any hope she had of him not noticing where her gaze had gone fled her mind.

“So, you missed me, huh?” he asked, a husky edge to his voice. His free hand trailed down her arm, eventually settling on the small of her back, gently pulling her into him. His breath was warm against her neck, and Astrid couldn’t repress the shiver that went down her spine even if she tried. “I think we should try this again…”

He looked so very satisfied, so very confident that he was going to get his kiss that Astrid couldn’t resist teasing him some more.

“Did I say that?” she said, moving her hands down his neck. “I don’t believe the words, ‘Hiccup, I missed you,’ ever — ”

He didn’t let her finish, slanting his mouth over hers and swallowing the rest of her words with his kiss. Astrid made a surprised, but pleased sound in the back of her throat, and let herself melt into Hiccup’s touch. He was an outstandingly good kisser, her Hiccup, and as much as she’d like to take credit for teaching him how to kiss a girl properly, he’d been a natural at it as soon as he got over his nerves. He could read her like a book, and knew all the right ways to get her to open up to him.

Hiccup’s other hand left the wall, sliding into her hair, fingers threading through her braid and tilting her head back. Astrid dug her nails into the back of his neck as their kiss deepened, Hiccup licking across the seam of her lips, his tongue finding its way into her mouth. She felt dizzy with want, and tugged him closer to her, never wanting to let him go.

She’d never felt so  _hungry_  for Hiccup’s touch before, so desperate to keep his mouth on hers. Oh  _gods,_ the sharp noise he wrung out of her when he worried her bottom lip with his  _teeth_  was downright embarrassing in its neediness. But that was all right, because she got her own groan out of him a moment later when one of her hands slipped under his armor and tunic to stroke the warm, muscled skin underneath.

Hiccup hiked her up around his waist and pressed her hard into the wall, and — and this,  _this_ kiss was true desperation, true need, and Astrid thought she might die if he let her go. Her skin was blazing hot, her lungs on fire, and oh,  _Hiccup_ …

Astrid couldn’t stop her trembling when their mouths parted, overwhelmed by pure sensation, and she kept her eyes closed to let the moment linger. Hiccup pressed his forehead into hers, and his chest heaved as he gasped for breath, each exhale making it slide roughly against hers. She could feel his heart beating uncontrollably under her palms, and she wondered if her pulse seemed just as wild to him.

“Hiccup?” Astrid said after a moment, her voice breathless.

“Yeah, Astrid?”

She opened her eyes, and cupped his chin in her hands, kissing him slowly, gently back down to earth. “I missed you.”

Hiccup laughed against her mouth and ducked his face into the crook of her neck, his shoulders shaking with mirth. A bubbly warmth filled Astrid’s chest. She loved making him laugh, even more than she loved kissing him. (But not by much. Hiccup’s kissing skills were pretty hard to beat.)

“Not so bad for a second try, huh?” he asked, looking up at her, triumph in his eyes. He was thoroughly mussed from their kiss, hair ruffled, shirt untucked, and lips swollen, and territorial heat curled low in Astrid’s belly as she took in every each of him.

“Much better than the first, I’ll give you that,” she replied, a smirk crossing her lips as she arched her hips into his. Hiccup’s eyes darkened and his hands dug into her waist as she leaned forward to whisper in his ear, “But I’m more interested in what the  _third_  try is going to be like.”

As she leaned back against the wall, enjoying the very obvious effect her words had had on her boyfriend, Astrid decided that if this was what Hiccup sneaking up on her involved, she could get used to it.

 _Very_  used to it.


End file.
